Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Dedication to age

8th September 2012

To trully determine why the flavour and aroma of a blend loses its dedication to marriage; I put five samples under the pump in the cupping room.

Roasts dated back to as early as the 4th of August. The 29th of August was the most recent of the samples. Bean development of each roast was relatively alike. In the cases of apparent tipping or underdevelopement, these taints were noted and expected upon the snorting, slurping and swishing commencement.

Dry Aroma

4th August – Rasberries and young rosemary.

9th August – Hot dog bread!

11th August – Cracked black pepper.

16th August – Lamington chocolate.

29th August – Cranberries and blossom.

Given the age variance, the blend still held the dark roast head high throughout for its flavour, acid and body qualities. The slurp of each sample unveiled the most distanced marriage relationship in the 4th of August roast. A little harsh for the side palate and some undesirable salty. The 9th and 11th of August roasts were pleasant enough. Cups I certainly wouldn’t knock back to doing the honours of commencing my day. However, the flavours were a little dulled and no stand out acidity or high notes. The 16th and 29th of August roasts bore strong relationships within. Reflective of intimate mingling of gases and personalities of individual… beans in the valved bags over the one to two week period. Beautiful balance and spices prominent. The walnut and shiraz and their tanic beauty.

To complete the blend ageing test, I extracted three short blacks of the 4th, 16th and 29thof August roasts. As discovered in the cupping room, the 16tth and 29th of Augustroasts were the top performers here. Our older contender, requiring a slightly courser grind setting, was sweet for the immediate tastebuds, but punched his way down. Not brutally, but not as tender as our winners. To conclude the experiment held, on an unthreateningly overcast morning in Robe – this particular blend proved is best young,but will not dramatically dissapoint if taken when a little fragile in its age ridden marriage.

A Gravity Infusion

About Me

Parachilna wet

Tullah Estate Basket Press Grenache

Experimenting with natural and additional yeast with a small grab of fruit from David Swan's 60 year old Grenache vines in Blewitt Springs.

I suggest this

McLaren Vale Winemaker Rose Kentish has crafted this magnificent, full bodied Vermentinu in France on her annual voyage.Incredibly full and lengthy. A little different to the Vermentino we find from the Australian producer.As the vines have a ripe age of 70 years - rather than the young toddler Aussies we find in our neck of the woods.

ULITHORNE Vermentinu

Discovered

Waiheke Island Olives

The coastal walk from Oneroa village to the ferry took a 8 km undulating hike through groves of olives and chardonnay vines, stretching to the edges of a rugged coast. Set us up perfectly for a glass of Chardy at the Oyster Inn on completion of our thigh burning sight seeing.